At Path to Freedom, the Dervaes family has steadily transformed their ordinary city lot in Pasadena, California, into an integral urban homestead. And, along the way, they are striving to become earth stewards, taking care of the precious gift we all have been given.
These eco-pioneers regard their 1/5 acre urban homestead as a sustainable living resource center where they are setting out to live by example while also inspiring others to "just do it!"
Their objective is to live as sustainably and self-sufficiently as possible in an urban environment in harmony with nature and each other, while also inspiring others to "think globally, act locally." Their homestead supports four adults, who live and work full time on a 66’ x 132’ city lot (1/5 acre).
The homestead's productive garden now grows over 6,000 lbs of organic produce annually
The yard has over 350 varieties of edible and useful plants. The homestead's productive 1/10 acre organic garden now grows over 6,000 pounds (3 tons) of produce annually. This provides fresh vegetables and fruit for the family’s vegetarian diet and a source of income.
The family operates a viable and lucrative home business, Dervaes Gardens, that supplies area restaurants and caterers with salad mix, edible flowers, heirloom variety tomatoes and other in-season vegetables. The income earned from produce sales offsets operating expenses and is invested in appropriate technologies, such as solar panels, energy efficient appliances, and biodiesel processor, to further decrease our homestead’s reliance on the earth’s non-renewable resources.
Over the years, by purchasing energy efficient appliances and using electricity conservatively, the modern homesteaders have cut their energy usage in half. Solar panels have reduced their dependence on electricity by two-thirds and have furthered their goal of energy independence. A solar oven is used to cook food on sunny days. And during the summer of 2005, the family built a cob oven, which is fueled by scraps of wood and twigs to create an energy source for cooking breads, pizzas, desserts, etc.
In 2003, the Dervaeses constructed a biodiesel processor from a discarded hot water heater, which enables them to brew low emissions biodiesel (a renewable, nontoxic, biodegradable replacement for petrol diesel) from used vegetable oil to fuel their diesel Suburban, reducing the vehicle's air toxins by 90%.
Citified farm animals
In addition, these urban farmers share their homestead with a menagerie of animals -- chickens, ducks, two rescued cats, red wiggler worms (which compost garbage) and two goats (Nigerian Dwarf and a Pygmy goat.
All the animals are treated with love, care and respect and full attention is given to their comfort and needs. Each breed is carefully researched and selected to fit into our urban homestead lifestyle and housing arrangements are designed for the animals' preferences and needs but with unique, space saving innovations. The family is vegetarian and none of the animals are raised for meat related purposes.
Future projects on the "to do list" are the installation of a greywater reclamation system, composting toilet, and a cistern to capture and store rainwater, which would dramatically reduce the use of precious water.
Through the implementation of a series of simple steps, a homegrown revolution has evolved.
You can follow the ups and downs of the family's journey, share in their successes and failures and peek into their every day lives by visiting the frequently updated urban homestead journal Read More
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